Fractured
by Arathe
Summary: A series of music-inspired drabbles; several of which are Roy/Ed.


Notes: A series of drabbles inspired by a meme on LJ. Any further drabbles I write will be going here, so if you'd like to keep an eye out for them, put this on your alerts. Enjoy!

(A new chapter of BIEH is almost done, I SWEAR!)

**:Fractured:**

**1. Snow - Red Hot Chili Peppers**

Ed slammed the glass down on the bar and grinned victoriously. He had kept up with Mustang shot for shot, six in total. That'd teach...teach...Edward blinked slowly, grasping at the thought. That'd...teach the bastard to call him short! Yeah. He wasn't quite sure that was entirely right, but it was close enough.

"Another?"

Mustang was grinning, and Ed eyeballed him suspiciously. He looked loose, relaxed in a way that was decidedly out of character. Ed grinned back and attempted to sit up straighter, succeeding only in sliding halfway off the stool and right into the other man.

He felt Mustang's arm slide around his shoulder, and Edward decided that wasn't such a bad place to be.

**2. Life Is a Highway - Rascal Flatts**

Sometimes, living was hard.

If it could be called that, Alphonse mused, watching the children play down by the river. He didn't speak of his condition often, not to anyone really, but especially not to his brother. It was hard, being unable to smell, to sleep, being unable to feel the wind or the water. And he missed food. He could remember his favorite foods, but no matter how he tried he couldn't seem to remember the taste of them. Some nights when he sat awake, watching over his brother, he wondered how much longer he could endure it, the emptiness, the sheer unconnectedness with the world around him.

Then he'd see his brother smile, a fleeting glimpse of the happiness Edward often denied himself.

That smile was why he continued on, one step after the other, day after day of endless research and false leads. That smile kept him grounded when he feared he would drift away.

That smile reminded him that no matter the hardships, life was always worth living.

**3. Unchained Melody - Righteous Brothers**

Edward Elric was beautiful in a wild sort of way. Roy stroked the golden head resting against his shoulder. Loving him was a bit like feeding a feral dog; he'd let you give him a pat every now and then, but he'd never let you keep him inside. Roy supposed he wouldn't have it any other way, but it wasn't an easy thing. Edward came and went when he pleased, and it never got any easier to watch him go.

He shifted, curling around the smaller man in his arms, and Edward let him, murmuring something Roy didn't quite hear. He buried his face against his lover and indulged in a little self pity. He knew Edward loved him, and the more time passed, the more desperately he wanted to cling to what they had. He couldn't though, because he knew that if he held on too tightly, one day Ed would go and he wouldn't return. Roy couldn't imagine living without the small blond, and so he treasured the fleeting moments they had and hoped that someday, Edward might come back for good.

**4. Best I Ever Had - Vertical Horizon**

"I'm sorry," Ed said, looking up through his bangs.

Winry's lips tightened and she stared at him for a long, long time. "So, that's it then?"

Ed dipped his head again and sighed. He didn't want to hurt her. He even loved her in his own way, but it would hurt her more in the end if he kept on with this charade. "I tried, Win. I did. I didn't ask for this...If I could make it go away, don't you think I would?"

Winry sighed heavily. "Now I can understand what it's like to be in love with someone who doesn't want you," she said, the words thick with emotion, and when Edward looked up, she was smiling in a painful sort of way.

"I wanted to love you," he said, and she choked a little at that. He could see the beginnings of tears, and he hoped a little selfishly that she didn't cry.

"I'm not so sure you did, Ed," she wrapped her arms around herself and bowed her head. "I think all you wanted was not to love him."

Edward cringed at the truth of those words. She was right, and he knew it. He had tried, so, so hard to bury his feelings for Roy so far and so deep they would never come to light again. He'd tried to give Winry everything she'd deserved, and he'd failed. Even though Roy had simply brushed him aside, it didn't change the fact that Edward was in love with him.

He was beginning to accept that no matter how much time passed, that might never change.

**5. Here Without You - 3 Doors Down**

Edward wondered if there was someone like_ him_ on this side of the gate. Like the others he had seen, had met. Like Alfons. It was a painful thought, and he buried it. Maybe there was, but it wouldn't matter. Just as Alfons wasn't his brother, anyone he met here wouldn't really be him_. _They might have his eyes, him smile, his hair, but they wouldn't have his heart, his soul, the indefinable things that made him who he was.

A copy without all of the things that Edward had fallen in love with.

Sometimes he thought that might be okay, when the loneliness was particularly bad. That maybe an approximation was good enough. Chances were he'd never see his home again _and do you really expect him to wait for you? you aren'tworthwaitingfor _and he knew he should try and move on. To build a life in this strange world; to try and find some modicum of happiness.

He...he had Edward's heart so firmly in his grasp that Ed didn't think he could fall in love again. Years now, and it hadn't lessened. Years, and it hurt as sharply as it had in the beginning. The heart defied all logic, and even though Edward knew he would never see his home again, knew that he had to make the best of what he had, he still found himself drowning in his memories.

Memories were all he had left.

**6. Everything You Know Is Wrong - Weird Al**

Alphonse stared doubtfully at the plate set before him. He wasn't sure exactly what it was, though he was fairly certain it quite dead yet. His stomach gave a little flip when the dubious mass _moved. _It was right about then that Al knew he was going to die. Either strangled to death by his own dinner, or by Winry. He couldn't decide which was worse.

"Well?" She asked impatiently, looming over him and Al had to resist the urge to slip under the table and make a run for it.

"It...um. It looks really good, Winry," he lied, but she didn't seem to realize it because she beamed brightly at him.

"I never did much cooking," she said, flopping into the chair beside him. "But it can't be any harder than making automail or repairing cars. Go on, try it!"

Al refrained from pointing out that working with machinery and cooking were two vastly different things. Instead, he grabbed his fork and stabbed at a chunk of something that was doing its best to escape over the edge of the plate. Alphonse thought he heard a tiny little scream, but it might have been his imagination. Raising the fork to his lips, he braced himself and took a bite.

Several hours later he awoke to the white walls and antiseptic smell of a hospital room. He could hear voices outside his room, and one of them was Winry's. It could have been worse, he decided.

At least it hadn't killed him.

**7. Fight For All the Wrong Reasons - Nickleback**

Skin on skin, sweat, electric pleasure.

Ed writhed, pushed, fought for control, and Roy grabbed his wrists and pinned then above his head, gripping hard enough to bruise. He didn't always lose the battle, but tonight he did, and that was fine with him. Roy bit him hard, a reprimand, and Edward gasped, arching against the other man. Roy chuckled against his neck and released his wrists, but Ed left them where they were. That was how the game was played.

He lay still as Roy moved away, working off the rest of his clothes. Not for the first time, Ed was struck by how utterly insane this relationship of theirs was. He didn't think relationship was the right word for something that consisted almost entirely of fucking, but he didn't know what else to call it. Not that the sex wasn't worth it. The sex was fantastic, absolutely mind-blowing, and he didn't think they could keep their hands off of each other if they tried. Not that they tried very hard, he thought with a grin. It was a strange arrangement --that was a better word, arrangement-- all around. They weren't lovers, they weren't even really friends, they just fought and fucked, and it seemed like the more they fought the better the fucking was.

Then Roy was back, and all thought was washed away by hands and lips and sensation.

It might not be right, but it was so hard to stop.

**8. Falling For the First Time - Barenaked Ladies**

Edward flailed, windmilling his arms, red-faced and babbling out complete and utter nonsense.

Roy watched the scene, utterly baffled, and ran backwards through their meeting, wondering what he'd done to set off the young alchemist. The kid was such an easy mark that the short jokes often slipped out without him realizing it. But no, he had said nothing of the sort. All he had done was commend Fullmetal on a job well done, and offer to buy him lunch as a reward for the unusual lack of property damage.

...Wait.

Peering more closely at Edward, he realized that the blond wasn't angry, he was flustered. He was blushing like a girl asked out on her first-- Roy aborted the thought, shaking his head. Edward could barely stand him, that couldn't be it.

Could it?

Deciding to test his theory, Roy put on his most winning smile, the one that women went nuts over, and said, "Edward."

Hearing his name caught Ed's attention immediately, probably because his wasn't used to hearing it out of Roy's mouth. Their eyes met, and if possible, Ed went even redder. It looked like the poor boy was going to faint. Fighting back a smirk at this most unexpected development, Roy stood and retrieved his coat. "We can go now if you want, I wouldn't mind taking my lunch a little early."

Edward squawked out something Roy took for an affirmative, and Roy opened the door, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder and taking a perverse amount of pleasure in his discomfort. It couldn't hurt to have a little fun with him; it was probably nothing more than a passing crush.

He wouldn't realize until much, much later how very wrong he was.

**9. Asshole - Dennis Leary**

The dorms were in an uproar.

They had a prankster in their midst, but this man was not your average practical joker; he was a sinister mastermind. No one knew his identity. When they spoke of him, they did so in hushed whispers, tossing fearful glances over their shoulders as though he might appear at any moment to cause further torment.

The toilets had been rigged to flood when flushed.

A colony of fire ants had mysteriously taken up residence in Private Conner's bunk.

Underwear vanished, only to surface later hanging from the windows of the women's dorm.

There were buckets of water, shaving cream incidents, glue in toothpaste tubes, and none of the officers could figure out why the occupants of that dorm were so completely terrified of honey.

There were rumors, of course. Some say he was some sort of ninja assassin sent from Xing to drive them all to madness, some claimed it was the vengeful ghost of a young man who had been pranked to _death _in that very building. In spite of all the speculation, none of them came close to guessing the truth.

Kain Fuery allowed himself a satisfied smile at string of cursing following a large crash, and turned the page of his book.

**10. Ordinary Day - Great Big Sea**

Edward flopped back on the grass, staring up at the bright blue sky. He liked the city well enough, but nothing could beat the peaceful serenity that could only be found in the country. Watching the clouds float lazily across the sky, he thought that he could stay like this forever and be happy. For the first time in a very long time, things were exactly as they should be.

He heard footsteps, and a moment later his brother's smiling face entered his field of vision. Al lay down beside him, close but not quite touching. Together they watched the sky, neither speaking because they didn't need words. All they needed was each other.

After a while Alphonse reached out, his fingers threading through Edward's. Ed smiled at the sky. This was true contentment, he realized. It had taken a long time, but in the end they had won the happy ending they had fought so hard for.

And he meant to enjoy every moment of it.


End file.
